In an effort to estimate some of the components of the net social costs and benefits of rural-to-urban migration, 161 Lexington, Kentucky migrants (randomly selected via census data) who had migrated from the rural, economically depressed area of Eastern Kentucky were surveyed in 1971 to gather information re: their last year in Eastern Kentucky and their first and last years in Lexington. Utilizing factor and multiple regression analysis, objectives were to analyze: factors affecting private costs and benefits of migration; migrant attitudes toward urban life, including a pecuniary estimate of the annual earned income differential necessary to induce return migration; and the incidence and magnitude of the net tax burden of migrant families for Lexington's public services. Results indicated: migration from Eastern Kentucky to Lexington was not bound by major monetary or institutional barriers (50% of the migrants had total migration costs of less than $75); the net private migration benefits were substantially greater than the costs (as human capital investment, the internal rate of return on migration costs was at least 132%); migrants were generally satisfied with living conditions in Lexington and wanted $1,600 more than they were earning in the city to return to Eastern Kentucky; except for local public schools, migrant families were not net social costs to the community for social services ($32 per year to the community for school services was only a tentative conclusion). (JC)